Omves
Phonology Consonants Fricatives are voiced intervocalically or following a nasal, such as the /v/ in omves. Consonants are romanized as their IPA symbols, except for ʃ ('sh' or 'zh'), ç ('c' or 'j'), ɾ ('r'), ɺ ('rl'), j ('y') and ʔ (' ' '). /ɺ/ is a rare consonant and only found in certain dialects while most speakers pronounce as /ɾ/; in the dialects that produce it as /ɺ/, /l/ is commonly closer to /ɮ/. Vowels Close-mid vowels become near-close in unstressed syllables. e -stressed > ɪ and o -stressed > ʊ. There is vowel harmony shown in the verb morphology. The first vowel in the root or derived word is used to determine whether the front or back agglugnating prefixes are used. Some word-final vowels have different realizations. æ e i o u -> æ ə i ʊ ɯ / _# Phonotactics ©V© structure. Words have a tendency to start with a vowel that is followed by two consonants. For example, omv in omves. Stress Stress lands on the first syllable of the main morpheme. Examples Omves - omvɪs Rla'ep - ɺaʔɪp Kere - keɾə Grammar Pronouns Using the first person nominative pronouns can be considered self-centered and rude. Instead, it is preferred for one to use the passive voice. The reflexive voice works like normal in this situations. With gender agreement, the personal pronouns are always animate. Pronouns can be shown to possess something by either placing the other noun into the possessed case, or by using these suffixes: For example, isamyo 'means ''my books and 'iskom '''means ''your (pl.) book. Pro-forms '''NP stands for non-past, and P''' stands for '''past. The pronoun forms are treated like regular inanimate nouns during declension and gender agreement. Negative pro-forms are generally preferred over negative verbs in active clauses. The proximal, medial and distal pronouns may replace third person pronouns if the antedecendent is unclear from context; this is more commonly done with inanimate objects. Verbs Verbs are usually constructed by adding suffixes to other words. For example, on means speech and su means to do, so to speak/say ''is '''onzu'. Verbs conjugate to show mood, voice and negativity, and agree in number with the main argument. Each suffix has two forms which are chosen depending on the last vowel in the root. Here is a fully conjugated verb: onzulkoro speech.do.IND.PAS.PLU.POS Because verbs do not conjugate to show tense, the third person pronouns are instead used to show the past tense. The pronoun is put after the main argument with which it agrees in number. This is usually only done for the past, but for emphasis it may be done for the non-past as well. Negative clauses are created by adding the prefix tsof(p)-''' e.g. '''tsofponzul. Both subject and object are placed in the accusative case in negative clauses. The p 'is included if the phonotatics allow it. This is done similarly for questions, but with the prefix '''kof(p)-'. Adding '''-(e)s '''to a verb root makes the action involuntary. For example, '''onko means to listen ''and '''onkos '''means ''to hear. Word Order SOV. Pronouns may be put after the verb on dropped entirely if their meaning is clear from context. Descriptors being used as adverbs go before the verb. Nouns Restrictive descriptors go before a noun, and unrestrictive descriptors go after a noun. Nouns decline for several cases and three numbers. They do not show any kind of vowel harmony, unlike the verb conjugation. For example, omvesyau 'is '''omves '''in the accusative plural. Some descriptors can only go with animate nouns; to solve this problem an '-i 'can be added to an inanimate noun to allow it to be used with an animate-only descriptors. This suffix can also be a method of expressing personification. For example, '''aras '''means ''happy, but since inanimate objects cannot literally be happy, the noun phrase the happy book would be '''aras isi. Possession is shown by either placing the possesser into the genitive case, or by placing the possessed into the possessed case, depending on which one wants to emphasize. For example, tejeis is 'and '''izu tec '''both mean ''the boy's book. Particles There are some particles that can have a noun phrase before or after them which adjusts their meaning. For example, the particle '''ufko means to for a noun phrase before it, or from for a following noun phrase. These particles can have a noun phrase both before and after it, as well. For example, from the tall boy to the person would be sonvau ufko sereli tec. Nouns are left in their plain form when used with a particle. If a noun has particles on either side, it is possible that the noun could have both particle meanings applied to it, but this can be worked out from how many connected noun phrases the particles in question may take. Descriptors TODO '''-i makes descriptors animate unless the descriptor is animate only Copula The copula '''i is used just like a normal verb. It is, however, irregular. The negative and question forms are the same as normal. Relative Clauses Relative clauses function like descriptors and as such can be placed before or after a noun/descriptor to indicate restrictiveness. A relative clause is closed with a relative particle shown in the table below. The top row is for the function in the main clause and the left column is for the function in the suboodinate clause. If the relative particle needs extra particles to show the relationship, these are affixed onto the main particle. To create a relative clause between two descriptors, one may use the relative particle rlo. Example: I am the boy who reads books. 'ed isyau iskol rlau tejau i.' Example: I read as fast as you read. 'ed rlo kova iskol ofta iskol.' Indirect Objects There is no simple way for adding indirect objects like a particle or affix, but instead one must add an extra verb to describe the indirect object's relationship to the main action. For example, this English sentence has ambiguity: I read the book to the boy. ''Did the boy just hear what I was saying, or was he listening? In Omves, one must carefully choose the verb to express an indirect object. To add an indirect object, one adds the verb after the main verb followed by the indirect object in the '''accusative' case: amni izau iskol onkol tejau. ''I read the book to the boy (who listened). That Clauses That clauses are formed with an introductory particle '''si '''and end with a closing particle '''lom' (nominative) or lok (accusative). Example: I heard that you are happy. 'ed si kova aras i lok onkosul.' Passive Voice One may reintroduce the actor at the end of a passive clause by preceding the noun phrase with eu, and putting the noun in the nominative 'case. For pronouns, the prefix '''e-' is added to them instead of the particle '''eu. Lexicon Numbers Omves' numbers are made in base 12. A number is built from pairs of numbers followed by a place value marker. The place value markers are a '''for the 144s and 1728s, '''nosta '''for the 20,736s and 248,832s. Bigger numbers had no method of construction. 0-11 each have two forms. The first form is used at the end of a number pair, and the second form is used at the start of a number pair or in isolation. For example, 160 would be '''mau a mauuspe, and 2,985,983 would be rovu'orovu nosta rovu'orovu a rovu'orovu. Example Text Category:Languages